Digital transformation is crucial to remain competitive, make smart business decisions and improve your customers’ experience. If you don’t have a digital transformation strategy in place, here’s why you should.
What is digital transformation?
Digital transformation can mean a couple of different things. Firstly, it can mean replacing manual processes with digital ones. For example, removing the need for staff to complete manual time sheets, instead using an automated login system. Secondly, it can also mean upgrading your existing digital technology to better meet your needs.
Technology advances rapidly in the modern world. Combine that with the fact that businesses change and evolve, and you’ve got a regular need for digital transformation. So, digital transformation could refer to ditching your old spreadsheets and databases in favour of a fully functional customer relationship management (CRM) system.
Why is a digital transformation strategy important?
There are countless reasons that you need a digital transformation strategy, so let’s take a look at a few of those in more detail.
It keeps you competitive
No matter what kind of business you run, you’ve certainly always got competition. If you’ve worked hard enough, you might even be at the top of your industry or local area. The problem is, that’s where everybody wants to be, and they use technology to achieve that. So, if you remain stagnant just because you’re at the top of your game, you risk being overrun pretty quickly.
Digital technology, whether it be websites or tools to support internal processes, are a key driver for success in business. If you don’t constantly review your needs and also seek out better technology, you’ll fall behind the pack.
Make better business decisions
How do you think most industry leaders get where they are? Hard work? To an extent. Having the best products? Sometimes. Maybe the most effective branding and advertising? Sure, that helps. All of these things certainly contribute to success, but there’s one thing that all successful companies rely on. Data.
Data is what fuels your marketing efforts, your competition strategy, expansion plans, and even how you operate from day to day. In today’s world, you don’t need to hire a market research company that conducts cold-call surveys to access data. You need technology. With better technology, you can access more data, more relevant data, and make better business decisions.
Improve the customer experience
Think about how customers interact with your business. It usually starts with a Google search. Then perhaps a visit to your website, followed by an email, phone call, or a visit to your store. Conversely, a customer’s first exposure might be through some form of advertising, perhaps on social media.
Almost every touchpoint in a customer’s journey with you involves technology. That’s why any process that involves customer interaction needs to be easy for them. The reality is, people have no patience. We don’t even want to wait 3 seconds for a website to load, let alone waste time on a poorly designed site that doesn’t quickly give us what we need.
Digital transformation fuels a better customer experience, resulting in more conversions and better customer loyalty.
